The Copenhaver Collection (LA 22) in Meyer Library’s Special Collections and Archives is a small collection mainly consisting of material from 1924-1938 regarding the Missouri Farmers Association (MFA) Milling Company in Springfield, Missouri.  It includes photographs of the inside of their building and of floods at the building in the late 1920s, MFA financials, and meeting minutes for the Exchange Managers of Southwest Missouri.  Also included in the collection is information about the Flour, Cereal, Feed Mill, and Grain Elevator Workers Union.

James Albert Copenhaver (1891-1959) and his brother, Herbert Hadley Copenhaver (1909-1972), were union members who worked in Springfield’s milling industry in the 1920s and 1930s.  James was a bookkeeper and cashier for the Missouri Farmers Association, whose Mill and Feed Company was located on Holland Street in Springfield.  He resigned as bookkeeper and cashier in 1928 and began working for the Tindle Milling Company, also in Springfield.

In the early 1920s, the MFA began a wholesale feed operation in Springfield, Missouri, called the Farm Club Mill and Feed Company of Springfield.  In 1924, the name was changed to the Missouri Farmers Association Purchasing Department, but was still referred to as the Farm Club Mill and Feed Company, as well as other similar names, such as the Springfield Mill and Feed Department, the Mill and Feed Company of Springfield, and the Springfield Mill.

The collection can be seen in person at Meyer Library, or online at http://purl.missouristate.edu/library/archives/DigitalCollections/Copenhaver. For more information see the collection’s finding aid or contact Special Collections and Archives.